Thanks Missings.A.! Malaria advice has pretty much remained unchanged since the beginning of this thread, so all researched information would be pertinent. It would be a lot of work to summarise everything, which any good website (but I mean good website!) would have already done. My experience is indeed that people do not go back even a couple of pages to see if their Q has been asked and answered; so, yes, there is a lot of rehashing.

Nevertheless, if one uses the "Search" facility above - and with only a few pertinent words - it usually throws up posts which will give the searcher a lot of information. Beyond that, people are still welcome to post questions, which will be answered as much as needed.

Thanks for the response OWN and Saraf. I have no problem myself with the website. When I come, I will test drive the latest meds beforehand and then do all possible to prevent being bitten, with the latest for the room and with repellent on me.

In the past I have used meds and never had any side effects. Last time I visited it was in the Sabi Sands during February, although as we have read here, some people have pretty unpleasant side effects.

When Daramal and Paludrine was still used as malaria prevention medication, it was possible to buy them over the counter in South Africa. However, since chloroquine resistance has risen to unacceptable levels in this part of the world, it is no longer recommended. Hence, all officially-suggested antimalarial drugs are now only via a doctor's prescription - doxycycline, atovaquone/proguanil, or mefloquine. (There are homoeopathic preventatives, but these are not officially recommended as antimalarials by official sites.)

Thank you. I spend many hours searching for items on natural history, animal physiology, human health, & photography that I can use on our website & my blog.

But some are of such general importance that I will post directly on these forums, as the one above.

Meandering mouse there are many advance being made in protection against malaria e.g. permanently impregnated clothing from craghoppers & longer lasting Deet lotion from 3M. I have no commercial link to any of these firms. We are just "old age adventurers" who spend 4-6 of our lives in the African bush photographing wild life and trying to solve travel problems. But I do think experts on the forum should update the now very old Malaria prevention advice i.e.last updated 2008.

Exbrakpanite, as malaria is a subject spanning expansive amounts of information and opinionated variations, there have been, over time, some "experts" who have offered strange - and sometimes inappropriate or downright uninformed - advice on malaria websites and threads. It must be remembered that people can die by being led into directions not scientifically backed up by evidence; therefore, malaria advice, as you have noted, needs to be sound and from an informed source. There are actually some health-professionals who do not have sufficient knowledge or are not up-to-date enough to advise fully on malaria - especially when involving complicated cases, such as certain immune-lowering diseases; pregnancy; young children; and the like. However, in my personal experience, most of the health-professionals that I have come into contact with do, at least, get the important basics right. Those who live in high-risk malaria areas obviously are generally more informed and geared-up to diagnose and take actions against malaria when it does occur. However, as you have aptly noted, it is up to the traveller to be vigilant and act on suspicious symptoms and signs. (It goes without saying that no doctor can test for and treat malaria if a person with the disease does not contact her or him.)

Having said all of that, I must tell you that I combed slowly and thoroughly through the information on your website, and I must applaud you for posting, in my opinion, pertinent and accurate information, backed up by appropriate sources. You have taken time to research the topic at hand and, although of course by no means thoroughly covering every aspect of the disease - which requires a full volume of expert and sound scientific research and knowledge - people can learn from what you have posted. However, people are encouraged always to consult experienced and knowledgeable helath-professional experts to better their chances of making an even more informed choice when travelling to designated malaria areas.

There is only one thing I would like to expand on from what you have said: malaria-carrying mosquitoes do not only bite at dusk and dawn, but ALL NIGHT LONG, beginning from about a half-hour before dusk to a half-hour after dawn. However, their peak biting frequency is generally until about midnight, with an increase again approaching dawn. Frequency of biting does however depend on other factors - such as number of mosquitoes in a certain location, season (more important in seasonal-risk malaria areas), weather conditions, clothing coverage, colours of clothing worn, and the propensity of the person to be bitten (some people simply are more attractive to mosquitoes than others (such as moi)).

I, in fact, read the whole website and was highly entertained by your style, anecdotes, and comments. Perhaps one day we may be lucky enough to "bump" into you both in some remote destination on this most wonderful of continents.

Disclaimer: My recommendations here - though based on some experience and some drug knowledge - are not absolute, and further consultation with suitable health-care professionals is suggested before a final decision is taken on whether to enter a malarial area, what prophylaxis to use, and any general factors and limitations that need to be taken into account. Furthermore, I only advise based on what information is given by the person(s) entering the malarial area, but I have no control on the information given to me, and so such information could possibly be incomplete or misleading.

johanrebel wrote:Malaria was rife in Italy until well after WW2. Draining the Pontine Marshes was one of the measures taken to reduce the incidence. This also contributed to the demise of wild buffalo in the country, which used to occur in the tens of thousands. The US Army also sprayed just about the entire population of Naples and other cities with DDT (which, by the way, was also sprayed from huge trucks along packed New York City beaches in summer).

Last outbreak of malaria in Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, was in 1956. Malaria occured as recently as the early 20th century in Scandinavia. It only disappeared when peasants no longer spent the whole winter under the same roof as their domestic animals.

That malaria is now considered a tropical disease only proves how short memories people have.

The risk of contracting malaria in Kruger as a tourist is so insignificant that is not worth thinking about for a second. There are far greater risks in life, such as crossing a street or driving a car. Heck, even driving a car in Kruger is far more dangerous. Just off the top of my head I can think of seven people killed in road traffic accidents in Kruger in recent years. How many malaria deaths can you think of?

Johan

Wonderful information on areas of Europe little known to Africans, JohanRebel.

Your last paragraph, however, I cannot agree with in its entirety. Indeed there are many risks in life that will have a higher prevalence of death than malaria in South Africa; now, why then would one ignore the "lesser" ones in favour of the more-commonly published ones? That is like saying that one can drive through red traffic lights at high speed in the dead of night because the amount of cars on the road is so much less than during peak hour. If one thumbs one's nose at Death often enough, it may just prove itself more knowledgeable than you.

There are hundreds of thousands of people that visit Kruger - some many times each year - and very few ever contract malaria. However, speak to the families of those who did pass away from this dread disease and I have no doubt that almost all of them will tell you that, if they could advise the deceased to do things differently and so save his or her life, they would. The risk is always there - ALWAYS. Yes, sometimes lower, sometimes higher, almost never on a par with some of the notoriously dangerous malaria countries of the tropics. But, why risk it? I will never, and I will always advise others the same. We are given the blessing of one life on this planet - live it to the full, but do so sensibly and to the extent that you may not only be a role model to many others, but also preserve your health and vitality to maximise your enjoyment of it.